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User blog:Wixelt/Return To Rainspell Island: A Brief Timeline Thought
Just posting this thought here whilst I remember. It has for a long time been apparent to me that for many long time fans of Rainbow Magic, the (sort of) anime move Return To Rainspell Island in an alternate timeline of a sort. The basis of this is that it apparently takes place following the Rainbow Fairies set (books 1-7) and ignores everything from the Weather Fairies ''(book 8-14) onward. I, meanwhile, disagree, and believe that the movie takes place in the same series of events as the rest of the book series. My reasoning for this is something I will go into now, but be warned that it's a little flawed by the virtue of relying on taking entirely unintended meanings of lines in the movie that would otherwise contradict it. __TOC__ Initial Thoughts Now, it might be best to start with what the 'alternate timeline' idea that would otherwise be a thing is. To put into into a visual, it's as follows: To put it simply, this way of thinking would infer somewhat correctly that, because of how the events shown in the movie place in regards to the original books, they can't possibly place in the main (red) timeline, as their events would overlap and contradict with those already established (at this point in the books, continuity is much easier to track in comparison to later on). As I mentioned though, I disagree with this. The way I would view it is, at first glance, more like this: I say 'at first glance' because if I were to just leave it at that and not give my reasoning, it would be incredibly easy to pick holes in this idea. So with that in mind, i'll go about explaining how I shoehorn the discrepancies this idea causes. An Exercise In Shoehorning Now, i'll start with the simple stuff; the stuff the characters and text of the movie mentions: *3 Months Later' '- This line of text on it's own, appearing as Kirsty arrives in Tippington to visit Rachel , isn't much of an issue until I get into other things, so i'll get back this later. But for now you should know that, regardless of the other facts around this, I consider this as the movie probably does: 3 months after Rachel and Kirsty's initial adventure on Rainspell Island, because the original books definitely take place in the Spring and the movie's main events are outright said by Rachel's mother to be in August. *'No Adventures Since Rainspell' - According to Rachel and Kirsty's initial dialogue in the same '3 Months Later' scene, they supposedly haven't had any encounters with fairies or anything truly magical since their first adventure on Rainspell Island. This would immediately count my above logic, that the movie takes place rather shortly after the Weather Fairies series (their second book adventure), out of the running. Except, in my mind at least, it doesn't. Though it's a bit of a stretch (okay, alot of a stretch, admittedly), I choose to see this as referring to their adventures with the Rainbow Fairies specifically. So, even though they've had an adventure with the Weather Fairies and even seen Oberon, Titania and possibly even the Rainbow Fairies again, they haven't had any actual adventures with their first seven fairy friends, which at the time, being relatively new to the magic world, would probably stand out as important to them. There's probably more starting points than that, but I can't recall them. Regardless, the point stands that if you account for these points, Return To Rainspell Island very comfortably fits just after the Weather Fairies. That raises a question, though. Why have I even put it after the Weather Fairies to begin with? Given their closeness to one another and the abovementioned '3 Months Later', wouldn't it make more sense to put them before? Well, it would, if not for one specific detail in the movie. The fairy lockets. Locket Logic Anyone who's read enough of these books will know that Rachel and Kirsty have a pair of lockets that grant them access to a measure of fairy dust for various uses. For the most part this is to transport the girls to Fairyland if they need help, though it earlier on instead granted them the ability to turn into fairies without relying on another fairy's magic to do so (probably the closest the pair get in the series to ever having magic of their own). That's not the important point, though, in comparison to when they actually got those lockets, that being in the Weather Fairies books. Now, that may seem open and shut for me as it more or less proves my point that, if anywhere, the movie has to take place after the Weather Fairies books. Except the narrative of the movie still has to been unwound a little bit for that to make sense, as it plays kind of oddly with the details in it's opening minutes for sake of a good story. The main detail is that, by all appearances, the movie version of the events shows that Rachel and Kirsty apparently get their lockets at the end of their adventures on Rainspell, upon the return of the Rainbow Fairies to Fairyland. This is probably the point which makes many people see it as being in a seperate timeline of events that diverges from the book. But as I said, I disagree. What I choose to do instead is to break that sequence down and posit that the events shown in the movie are actually from the two different occasions, first from the end of the Rainbow Fairies books and the return of Fairyland's colour, and second from Rachel and Kirsty's summoning to Fairyland at the start of the Weather Fairies books, where they recieve their lockets. If you consider that the creators of the movie were probably more interested in a good narrative than conforming to existing events, this being a series mainly meant for children, the idea wouldn't be all that far fetched. Regardless, if you accept that idea along with everything else i've spouted so far, you get this: Conclusion So, there you have it. That's where I stand on it's placement and why. Personally, I think that, if you ignore the slight shoehorning of definitions, it makes some measure of sense if you want to view the movie in the same timeline as the books, which if you're planning to write fan-fiction as I am, adds more depth to the setting to draw from. Regardless, though, I hope this has been an enjoyable read and that I haven't been too wordy for people's tastes. :P If you have any arguements against this or points you think i've missed that would affect my theory, feel free to leave them for me in the comments below. '-Wixelt' Category:Blog posts